Advertisers Want To Buy Users’ Browser History From ISPs

Advertising agencies rely heavily on users’ browsing history in order to show them personalized and targeted advertisements. It increases their chances of getting a user to buy their service or product. While it is beneficial for advertisers, it is harmful for users, namely their privacy. Till now, ISPs are prevented from selling browsing history to advertisers. But a new legislation introduced by Republican lawmakers could throw the ball in the advertisers’ court.

What is the Legislation?

As of now, ISPs can share information with third-parties only after receiving opt-in consent from the users. The new legislation would do away with this consent. This means that advertisers could get their hands on any information they want regarding the users’ internet browsing. The FCC or Congress could take matters in their hands and stop this from happening, but lobbyists and other authorities say that the FCC shouldn’t have the sole right to affect changes.

Why is it Bad?

It’s no rocket science to understand why this new legislation is bad. It will take away the little shred of privacy intact. Whatever you search for could be viewed by an ad agency. This information could be your health data, banking information, things you buy, etc. It depends on the kind of agency that buys the data from your ISP.

An insurance firm, if it has access to your bank statements and medical history, could provide you with a health insurance plan that sits well with your financial condition and takes care of your medical condition. While this can be seen as good, there’s no denying that the means to achieve the ends are preposterous. If advertisers are given a free reign, there’s no telling what information they might buy from the ISPs.

How to Protect Yourself?

The protection for user data is already bare bones. If this legislation is successful, then the onus for protecting your browsing history will be on you. Since advertisers buy this information from your ISP, you’ll have to make sure that your ISP cannot record this data. The best way to do that is to use a VPN.

VPNs are known to provide privacy and a secure channel for sharing personal information. They connect you to the internet through an encrypted tunnel. Everything you share is encrypted. This makes it difficult for anyone to see which website you visit and what you share. All your ISP can see is that you are connected to a VPN.

However, you must heed caution when choosing a VPN. While they hide your activity from everyone else, the VPN vendor can see everything you do on the internet. That’s why it’s important to choose a VPN that does not record any sort of logs and respects your privacy, like hide.me.

Conclusion

We discussed in this article how a new legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers could make the internet an even more dangerous place for users. Advertisers could get their hands on any user data if it goes their way. We also provided our readers with a way to tackle the situation themselves.